House System

As voted by the students, our three Houses are named after three great humanitarians of the twentieth century. A humanitarian is someone who works to improve the lives of others, often putting their own well-being at risk.

Each of our three humanitarians lived their lives according to principles of fairness, tolerance and respect for others. Their lives serve as an inspiration to us. Our new school badge, designed by the students themselves, incorporates references to these three inspirational individuals and their work.

Mother Teresa

Teresa House
Mother Teresa became famous as a Catholic nun who dedicated her life to caring for the desperately poor, the sick, the abandoned and the dying in the slums of Calcutta in India. In 1979 she received the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in 1997. There are now around 5000 members of the religious order she founded – the Missionaries of Charity. She was declared a saint by the Catholic Church in 2016.

Maximilian Kolbe

Kolbe House
Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest, who was sent to Auschwitz for hiding Jews and other refugees from the Nazis during the Second World War. One day, after an attempted escape by three prisoners, the guards selected ten other prisoners at random to be starved to death as punishment. Kolbe volunteered to take the place of one of the ten, a family man. Kolbe was declared a saint by the Catholic Church in 1982.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

King House
At a time when blacks were often treated as second-class citizens in the USA, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights campaigner, believing that everyone should be treated equally. He is perhaps most famous for his “I have a dream…” speech and for his belief in non-violence. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and was assassinated in 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a national holiday in the USA each January.

The ‘House’ system promotes an element of healthy competition. House events, both sporting and non-sporting, take place on a regular basis, with students earning points towards their House total.